The present invention relates generally to multiconductor electrical connectors and, more particularly, to an electrical connector with a plurality of layers of termination sections for high density connection and its termination method.
Japanese Patent Kokai No. 60-167,285, assigned to the assignee of the present application, discloses a multiconductor electrical connector of the aforementioned type. This electrical connector has at least two types of contacts having different lengths, the piercing portions of which project from a front end of an insulating housing in at least two rows, and at least two cable retainer sections; the first cable retainer section receives the ends of the first flat multiconductor cable in the piercing portions of the shorter contacts and the second cable retainer section receiving the ends of the second multiconductor flat cable in the piercing portions of the longer contacts upon the first cable retainer section. This structure permits the termination of most commonly used multiconductor flat cables at least two layers, thus doubling the contact mounting density.
However, this electrical connector has the following drawbacks.
(1) A plurality of cable retainer members are separated before cable termination so that each multiconductor flat cable must be terminated separately to the corresponding cable retainer in order by using a solderless connection machine. Consequently, the number of steps of termination operation is large, pushing up the manufacturing cost.
(2) To insert an end of each cable into a cable retainer section, the cable retainer section must be mounted in an appropriate solderless connection tool. Consequently, a large number of such special solderless connection tools are required for mass production, resulting in the increased manufacturing cost.
(3) The cable retainer members can be used for only multiconductor flat cables and cannot be used for individual separate conductors of a round cable, etc.